


Simple Gifts

by Rachel Wilder (rwilder)



Category: Friday Night Lights
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-02
Updated: 2015-02-02
Packaged: 2018-03-10 03:22:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3274838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rwilder/pseuds/Rachel%20Wilder
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post season 2.  A version of Jason, Erin, Lyla and what happened.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Simple Gifts

**Author's Note:**

> This story is the final chapter of a prompt I received my from dear friend N. As always, beta-reading and general support was conducted by Shelbecat. Thank you so much for reading.

This story is a sequel to [A Place for Seeds to Grow](http://archiveofourown.org/works/3274796) (although you really can read this without having read that)and both are related to [For the Love of the Game](http://archiveofourown.org/works/3274772).

**Simple Gifts**

"Dad? Why do I have red hair?" Ben Street

Jason looked over at his son Ben and reached out to rough his fingers over Ben's red hair. He smiled at the little boy. Ben was at the age now when he asked lots of questions. Sometimes they were easy to answer and sometimes they were a little more complicated.

"Because Erin's hair is red, Ben," Jason replied. "You get it from her."

"Oh," Ben replied as he returned to his math homework. He looked up again at Jason. "But how did I get it from her?"

Jason leaned forward on the kitchen table. "Because you grew in her belly and when you were born, you came to live with me and mommy."

/-/  
 _Eight years earlier_

"You've looked at the clock every five minutes for the last hour," Lyla said as she reached over to take Jason's hand. "She'll call us when it's time."

Jason looked down at his hand in Lyla's. "What if this isn't the right decision? I should—I should call my parents or a lawyer or…"

"You have to trust her, Jason," Lyla replied. "She's been pretty clear about what she needs and now you just need to have faith that it will work out for both of you."

"Is that your God talk?" Jason asked.

Lyla smiled and shook her head. "No, that's my very best 'Buddy Garrity, trust me and it will all work out' talk."

Jason laughed. It was amazing that she could make him laugh at a time like this. He looked over and smiled at her. She was amazing. He'd like to…

The phone on the table started ringing.

"You answer it," Jason instructed her.

"Hello," Lyla said as she picked up the phone. "Okay—we'll be right there."

/-/  
The drive to the hospital seemed to take forever.

"Can't you go any faster?" he asked Lyla. "We're going to miss it."

He wanted to be upset with Erin, to get on her case for holding all of the cards, but Lyla would remind him that there were two people in this experience and Erin had rights as well. He would not be at the hospital until the baby was ready to come. He could be in the room for the birth, but not with Erin. He could be down by the doctor to see the baby being born.

And when it was time—the baby would come home with him.

Jason Street was going to be a father.

"We're here," Lyla said, interrupting his thoughts. "I'll come up and help you get ready."

Jason nodded and reached into the back seat to pull his chair out and get ready to go into the hospital. It was definitely going to take a village to raise this child, but so far he had Lyla, his parents, Coach and Mrs. Taylor, Buddy—everyone was ready to help him raise this miracle child. Heck, even Riggins said he'd babysit if Jason was really desperate.

Of course Jason was never going to be that desperate.

Everyone was ready except for him. His hands paused as he went to slip the right wheel back on his chair.

"What's the matter?" Lyla asked.

Jason looked up at her, his eyes betraying the panic he was feeling. "I don't think I can do it," he told her.

Lyla reached out and laid her hand over his, moving his fingers as they latched the wheel onto the frame of the chair. "No one is going to be a better father than you, Jason Street. I have total faith in that and in you. Now, let's go—I don't want to miss this baby's arrival."

Jason heaved himself from Lyla's car into his chair and they headed into the hospital. As he looked up at the façade of the building he realized that for the first time he wasn't coming in here to try and get back the things he'd lost on the football field. This time he was here to truly start his new life.

/-/  
"Okay, Erin, one more big push," the doctor instructed. Jason sat in his chair just to the doctor's right, out of the way, but still able to see the baby's head crowing in the birth canal.

"Oh, God!" Erin cried as she pushed one more time.

The baby didn't seem to move at all, and then all of a sudden it was moving toward them, the head appearing from Erin's body and then the baby slipped down and out. The doctor turned the baby slightly and reached to pull the baby down…

"You have a boy," he said as he pulled the baby free. The baby took a breath and let out a healthy cry.

"Is he okay?" Erin asked, her voice filled with exhaustion.

"He's perfect," Jason replied. A son.

"What's his name?" the nurse asked as they carried the baby over to the warmer to wipe him off.

"Ben," Jason and Erin replied in unison.

/-/  
In the end, it had been Erin's idea. She had come to Jason and explained that she couldn't be with him, couldn't raise a child, but that didn't mean that she felt she could stop him from making that decision for himself.

She would have the baby. He would raise the baby, but the baby would know her.

And they would pick out the name together.

"He's amazing," Jason said as he traced his finger along the edge of Ben's soft face.

"Is he hungry?" Erin asked.

Jason shook his head. "No, he's sleeping."

"Okay," Erin replied as she lay back against the pillows.

"You should sleep too," he pointed out. "You must be exhausted."

"Yeah," Erin replied as she tried to stifle a yawn. "It's a lot harder then they make it look on TV. Are your parents here?"

Jason nodded. "Yeah, Lyla called them."

"You should bring them in, let them see Ben."

Jason looked over at her. "Are you sure?"

Erin nodded. "I know your mom must be so excited."

Jason looked at her again and smiled. "Let me call the nurse and we can take him back to the nursery. I want you to get your rest. You don't need to be entertaining us."

"Okay," Erin agreed.

They were being really careful with each other, but at the same time there was this understanding between them. Erin seemed to understand how much this meant to all of them, the promise that Ben held for the future. Jason trusted that even though she had said that she didn't want to be a part of Ben's life, that they could have this time together now and probably in the future, but it wouldn't change the fact that Ben was his.

/-/  
"Oh, Jason," Joanne Street said as she walked up to the bassinette. "Oh, honey, he's…he looks just like you did."

Jason's dad walked up behind her, paused and looked over and smiled at Jason. "Good work, son."

He knew the baby would bring them around. The night he told them about Erin’s pregnancy had been one of the worst scenes he'd ever experienced with his parents, much worse than the time Tim had convinced him that if they had a keg party while his parents were out of town that no one would be the wiser.

"How did this happen?" his mother had said, her voice rising and taking on that pained, pinched noise it sometimes did when she was really upset. His middle name had not come out yet, but he could tell they were about fifteen seconds from her having to use it.

"Uh, literally?" Jason had asked.

"Jason Mitchell Street."

Bingo. Fifteen seconds, although in all honestly he had to admit that he had goaded her into it.

"I was as shocked as you are, although I did want to call Buddy up and let him know that I had passed at least one level of his 'worthy of marrying Lyla' test now."

"That's not really helping, Jason," Mitchell Street pointed out.

"Uh, yeah, I know," Jason replied. "I'm sorry, I just don't really know what to do about it and…"

"What do you want?" his mom asked quietly.

Jason looked at her and then at his father. "I want this baby. I know it's not the right time, but I didn't think I'd have this chance. I don't think I'll have another one. How can I deny this miracle?"

Joanne got up from her chair and moved over next to Jason. She knelt down in front of him and reached up to hug him. "Then we'll help you."

/-/  
"So, did Herc get another roommate?" Tim asked as he carried a handful of bags and a box of disposable diapers into Jason's old room.

"You looking for a new place to crash?" Jason asked as he stopped in front of the dresser and pulled open the drawer. "Give me those onesies."

Tim held up an impossibly small white bodysuit. "Is this a 'onesie'?" he asked. "Man, Street, I thought helping you out in Mexico was as intimate as we were going to have to get."

"Give me that," Jason said as he reached over and took the little outfit from Tim's hands. "Those are from Lyla. The baby needs need them." He put the outfit in the drawer and turned back toward Tim. "She's been helping me out a lot."

"Of course she has," Tim replied. "You've developed the ultimate chick magnet formula."

"What do you mean by that?" Jason asked.

Tim shrugged. "Got a chick knocked up and then did the unthinkable—said you'd do whatever she wanted but really that you mostly wanted to raise that kid yourself. That's catnip to a chick like Lyla."

"Yeah, I don't think so," Jason answered. "Plus, she's still with that guy, the one from the church."

"Nope," Tim said as he put the box of diapers next to the changing table. "She dumped him last week. She's waiting for you, Street."

"Lyla and I were over a long time ago," Jason replied. "We all know that."

"You'd better tell her," Tim responded. "'Cause I'm pretty sure she didn't get that part of the game plan."

There was a knock at the door and Jason's mom walked in with Ben in her arms. "I think he's ready to go down."

Jason and Tim watched while Jason's mom walked over and laid the baby down in the crib.

"That crib looks weird," Tim said as he walked over to the crib and opened the door in the front bars. "It looks like a little cage."

"It's 'designed for disabled parents'," Jason explained.

"I'm pretty sure we can't slide your bony butt through here," Tim said, closing the door on the crib where Ben still slept.

"Nice language, Riggs," Jason shook his head and pointed toward the door. He followed behind Tim and his mom back toward the living room. "Nah, I've got my own room again. Dad moved Mom's laundry room into the garage and me into the laundry room. It's very styling."

"Not bad for a baby daddy," Tim pointed out.

"True," Jason replied.

"You boys need anything else?" Joanne asked as she headed into the kitchen. She paused at the door and looked back out at Jason. "By the way, Lyla called and asked if she could come over. I told her we'd have dinner around 7 pm when your dad got home."

"Catnip," Tim said.

"Whatever," Jason replied. Tim Riggins was crazy. But that wasn't a surprise to anyone who knew him.

/-/  
"What are you boys talking about?" Lyla said as she came into the kitchen where Jason and Ben were sitting.

"Daddy was telling me about my red hair," Ben replied. "He said that it was a present from Erin. Is that true, Mom?"

Lyla sat down next to her son. She reached over and slid her arm around his small shoulders. "You were the present, Ben. You were the most perfect gift that your dad and I could ever have gotten from anybody."

Ben looked up at his mom and smiled. "I'm glad that I got to grow in Erin's belly. But I'm glad you're my mom."

Lyla pulled Ben in tight to her and looked over his head at Jason. She couldn't stop the tears from coming to the corner of her eyes. "Me too, Ben. I wouldn't want anyone else to be my son."

She never would have dreamed that it would have been okay to raise another woman's child. When she was growing up, she dreamed night after night about having Jason's child, but the reality was that Ben was their son and no matter how that had happened, it was better than she could have every imagined.

/fin/

* * *

**Disclaimer** : All characters that appear in these stories belong to their respective creators, including Imagine Entertainment, NBC Universal Television Studio and Film 44.


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